BBC NEWS | UK | Education | Drunken sailors left out of rhyme

BBC NEWS | UK | Education | Drunken sailors left out of rhyme: "'Drunken sailors' have been removed from the lyrics of a nursery rhyme in a government-funded books project.

But the Bookstart charity says the re-writing of What Shall We Do With the Drunken Sailor? has 'absolutely nothing to do with political correctness'.

The charity says that the shift from drunken sailor to 'grumpy pirate' was to make the rhyme fit a pirate theme, rather than censorship.

'Put him in the brig until he's sober,' has also been lost in the new version.

This latest ideological spat over nursery rhymes was sparked by the re-writing of What Shall We Do With the Drunken Sailor."

Good Lord:

PIRATES AHOY!

What shall we do with the grumpy pirate?
What shall we do with the grumpy pirate?
What shall we do with the grumpy pirate?
Early in the morning

Hooray and up she rises
Hooray and up she rises
Hooray and up she rises
Early in the morning

Do a little jig and make him smile
Do a little jig and make him smile
Do a little jig and make him smile
Early in the morning